Sidestream smoke is the smoke given off by the burning of a cigarette or cigarette-like smoking article between puffs. Such smoke may be objectionable to those near the smoker who are not smoking or who do not smoke.
Several attempts have been made to reduce sidestream smoke through the use of various compounds, e.g., magnesium hydroxide, as cigarette paper fillers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,941,485, 4,915,118, 4,881,557, 4,450,847 and 4,433,697. While magnesium hydroxide reduces sidestream smoke, its incorporation into smoking article wrappers can result in a cigarette with unacceptably poor taste. Others have used physical mixtures of magnesium hydroxide or an unspecified "magnesium carbonate" composition with other compounds such as calcium carbonate in smoking article wrappers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,589 disclosing a 2 layer wrapper construction. Some have even tried flavoring agents to mask the poor taste. However, none of these attempts to reduce sidestream smoke while maintaining positive subjective taste attributes have met with success.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a smoking article having a wrapper designed to reduce sidestream smoke without adversely affecting the consumer's subjective taste perception of the cigarette.
It is another object of this invention to provide compositions comprising high levels of a co-crystalline form of magnesium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide as a novel filler in a cigarette wrapper without adversely affecting the consumer's subjective taste perception of the cigarette.